Ravens of Eternity

273 Covert Reunion, Pt Xylo sped forward as quickly and quietly as she could towards the two unassuming corporate guards. They were both completely unaware of her existence, even as they patrolled lazily down a dark and dusty mineshaft tunnel.

She came up behind them, grabbed one by the neck, and yanked backwards with all the force she could muster. After she threw him on the ground, she performed a jumping round-house kick at the other.

Her armored shin slammed against the back of his helmet with swift precision, and knocked him out cold. Xylo then spun around, stood over the one who had fallen, and swatted the side of his helmet with the butt of her pistol.

The force of it was strong enough that he too was knocked out cold.

The rest of the Ravens came up a few seconds later, and moved the two knocked out corporate guards out of the way and further into the shadows. Amal even injected them with mild doses of a simple sedative, which kept them unconscious for hours.

Once they were done, they continued further down the dark tunnels of the mineshaft. Not everything was bathed in darkness – there were relatively dim lights that hung on the tunnel ceilings every twenty meters or so.

Those lights were also present at every turn and fork they came across, which helped them navigate the tunnel system.

And as they walked, they dispatched the few random patrols they came across, and hid their bodies in the darkest corners.

The tunnels themselves were precisely cut out of the various stone and minerals in the dirt itself, which was structurally held up by titanium bracing every five or so meters. They branched out in every direction, and often ascended up or down as they got deeper.

.....

More than that, the tools of the diggers were strewn everywhere. The Ravens often passed numerous large two-handed laser augurs leaned up against the tunnel walls, or littered in various piles along the edges. Various safety equipment also often accompanied them, from industrial rebreathers to reinforced helmets to full-on powered exosuits.

It wasn’t long until they came to the coordinates that Lucifer had sent them – it was a small and simple office that was carved out of the rock in the wall. A doorway had been carved right into it, and a placard with some foreman’s name was etched right beside it, at eye level.

Despite the office itself made out of a large chunk of granite rock, the corporation had installed sliding security doors to keep it solid.

It was a weird choice, considering anyone could pick up any of the laser augurs and cut into the relatively softer rock to get inside.

But such illogical excess was the way of the corporation. Especially the bloated ones.

Miko stepped up and waved her baton at the door’s touchpanel, and unlocked it without any problems. The door quickly slid open, and both Xylo and Kali rushed in with their weapons high.

The interior of the office was relatively small – far smaller than they expected. All that was in there was a desk, which was precision-cut out of granite, a terminal on top of it, a few chairs, and some shelves.

There was also a small circuit and databank in an environmentally-sealed rack in one corner. In the corner opposite was a small refrigerated case that was half-full with packed lunches and drinks.

Otherwise, there was nothing in there. Certainly no Freya or Lucifer.

The Ravens were utterly puzzled – this was the meeting location, and just about the right time. They quickly looked around at everything, but found nothing out of sorts. Miko even hacked into the terminal, but only found schedules and personnel notes and corporate messages.

Just as the feeling that they were betrayed and fooled began to set in, two large and burly female guards came into the office. Both of them towered over the Ravens, a fact compounded by their robust armor and heavy rifles.

They were amazonian in stature – tall, muscular, and incredibly imposing.

“What the hell are you all doing in here?!” shouted the first one.

Claire was the first to spin around, and quickly threw her hands up and forward in the air. Not as surrender, but to halt any aggression on either side.

“Wait!” she said. “We’re just here to look for our friends!”

At the same time, Kali had stepped between the two guards and Amal, and raised her greathammer protectively.

“We know,” the second guard said. Her voice was gruff, but there was a hint of familiarity in the tone.

Then her face morphed and shifted before the Ravens. The hard, angular lines drew back, and the scars faded away. Her skin tone lightened, and her dark brown eyes shifted to a crystalline green.

In fact, both guards’ faces shifted, though their bodies stayed large. And in those few moments, Eva’s and Lucifer’s faces solidified. Both of them grinned at the stunned Ravens.

Amal was the first to run forward and hug Eva tightly. She was quickly joined by the others. It was a little weird, considering how much larger Eva’s body was, but they weren’t complaining. They gave each other a good long squeeze after such a long time away from each other.

Lucifer rolled hir eyes and looked away. Ze could barely stand the sappiness of the moment.

But kept a corner of hir eye on them anyway.

Once they had their fill of too much togetherness, they stood back and settled themselves around the office as they chattered and expressed their relief audibly. Miko also had her drones fly out of the office to patrol the area around them.

Just to make sure they wouldn’t be disturbed.

“Either of you wanna tell us how you can do that?” asked Amal. “‘Coz that seems really handy to know.”

“It’s a long story,” Eva answered. “I’ll tell you later. I’ll also teach it to all of you, if you wanna learn it anyway. Right now, we’ve got other things to chat about, and not a lot of time to do it in.”

“Agreed,” added Miko. “Let us start with the bad news first.”

The other Ravens agreed, but sullenly. Eva felt the energy get sucked right out of the room at the same time.

“The Spirit of Amelia was impounded by the Federation,” said Miko.

Eva immediately grimaced, and understood why everyone was a little depressed. Not every Raven was present on the planet currently.

As Lucifer had warned her, she expected that everything of hers would be taken for Federal “protection”. Though she didn’t imagine they would have gone for Amelia, too. The frustration welled inside her again, and her body shifted slightly in response.

As though her body wanted to break out of hiding and fight.

But she quickly tamped it down with a long exhale.

“It’s ‘coz I’m listed as a part owner, right?” Eva asked. To which Miko gave a single nod in response.

“Hai.”

“And the ‘Cast?”

“Strong as ever,” Amal answered. “Except... we can’t do anything with it. The Federation froze it too, in a way. We can’t upload anything, and we can’t withdraw earnings from it.”

“Which is a real pity,” added Xylo, “especially since our viewership practically doubled. Thanks to, uh, what’s happened with you.”

Eva wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Did she bring notoriety to the Ravens? Then again, it was moot who the new viewers were – none of them earned a single credit from it.

And now that she had escaped, she made it worse. Her actions practically locked their wealth away, forever.

“I’m sorry,” she said after a while. “This is all my fault. I could’ve just stayed in jail and waited it out. Instead my impatience got... everything got taken from all of us.”

“That’s not true,” Amal immediately retorted. “You haven’t done anything wrong. None of us have. And you haven’t taken anything away. That was the Federation, and whatever bullshit they call liberty.”

“I know, I know. Still can’t help but feel responsible though.”

“Well, stop doing that.”

Eva shook her head solemnly at Amal’s insistence. It didn’t seem that easy to her. Although now that they were all back together, she felt herself become whole again, slowly but surely.

“Let’s just delete our channel on SolNet,” she said. “Destroy it all, and reupload on FreeNet. If we can’t earn from it, no way will we allow the Feds to earn from it, too.”

The others grinned and agreed wholeheartedly. Every single one of the Ravens had long since gotten fed up with the Federation, and wanted to fight against it, somehow.

Lucifer watched with expectant eyes, and waited for hir moment to speak. Timing was everything.

“Here’s what I propose,” continued Eva. “First, we gotta keep tabs on Nightma – ugh, I mean Seraph. That idiot changed his name, apparently for PR purposes. Anyway, he’s definitely after me. I can feel it.”

“Before we go further,” Miko interrupted. “From this point forward, I refuse to acknowledge that person by the names he has given himself. I will only refer to him as That Idiot. I hope all of you will join me in this.”

The others laughed and chuckled. Then immediately voted in the new name as canon.

“No need to worry about that too much,” Xylo said soon after. “Raijin and I already penetrated a few Peacekeeper databanks and security circuits. We got a real good look at what they’re packing.”

“They are a much larger organization than we first believed,” Miko added. “They have vast influence over multiple star systems, not just Helios. And although they have little presence in the colonies, they are beginning to encroach on it.”

“What’s worse,” Xylo said, “they’re keyed directly into the Federal Citizen Databank. No-one else has that kind of access, not even the Navy. They can literally peer into the lives of anyone in the Federation, at any time they want, for any reason at all.”

Lucifer was utterly astounded at what ze heard. They had broken into Federation systems? And could spy into it? That by itself was more valuable than all their lives combined.

“Hold on just one moment,” ze said. “You have a dataworm buried in the Federation’s primary databanks? And you have unfettered access to it? To everyone’s data?”

Miko shook her head in response.

“Mostly no, partially yes,” she said. “My dataworms are buried in Peacekeeper circuits. They are currently expanding their influence slowly, but their networks and nodes are vast. It will take time.

“They do have access to the primary databanks through Peacekeeper systems, but I have not ordered them to infect it. I fear they will be detected and purged there. My focus is on owning the Peacekeepers’ systems, as we may have use for it later. Well, we certainly have a use for it now, if we are to keep tabs on That Idiot.”

“We’ll need to know how close he’s getting to us,” said Eva. “So we can better lay down any traps. And remove him from the galaxy, forever.”

“What if he’s got clones?” asked Xylo. “Wouldn’t put it past him to have an outstanding life continuance policy.”

“We could neutralize him out in unregulated space,” said Claire. “If he’s not connected to SolNet, his data won’t get transferred to the closest regen center, and he’ll never get regenerated.”

The others nodded at Claire’s ruthless suggestion approvingly.

“Sounds like a plan,” said Eva. “But before we can do any of that, we’ve gotta get our stuff back. We need to get Amelia back. We can’t do any of this without her. We can’t even leave without her. Who’s with me on this?”

“No,” Lucifer said adamantly. “Absolutely not.”

Eva turned to Lucifer, astounded that ze rebuffed her. They had spent the past month surviving out here, and they practically argued over every little thing. Over how they were going to stay hidden, or make money, or even what they were going to look like.

It got to her. It got to the both of them.

“Excuse me, what?” said Eva, exasperation deep in her voice. “If we Ravens want to go break into some vault somewhere, then we will. No-one’s gonna stop us. Besides, you’ve done your job and got us back together.”

“You aren’t exactly out of this mess yet,” Lucifer countered. “And that means I’m definitely still on the clock. All you’ve got right now is a whole lot of passion and anger, but not a lot of anything else. Sure, you can find out where your things are, but how’re you gonna get them? The only ship you’ve got access to doesn’t even have guns!

“You have zero equipment, zero plans, zero idea who you’re up against, exactly. You can’t get Amelia back, not the way you are right now – but I know someone who can help. And I’m happy to take you to her.”

Eva grumbled slightly, but she recognized the truth in Lucifer’s words. They were far from prepared. They barely had access to their own wealth.

“If we don’t like what she has to say – we can leave and do our own thing, yeah?” she countered.

.....

“Deal,” Lucifer replied.